Trading in a car or selling it?

[ceeveg]

Selling a car -- we bought a car the January before last, trading in two older cars (one completely dead) as the down payment. We have a $300 monthly payment, and owe about $14,500 on the car, which is more than it's current blue book value.

Can we get rid of it, or trade it in for a cheaper used car to reduce the note? How do these things work?

[mamatoakd]

I've never sold a newer car, but have found that as long as the car is running well, you'll get more money by selling it directly than as a trade-in. Both cars we've sold were pretty old and the dealer was only offering a couple hundred $'s while selling it directly got us more than double.

[lovelysunlight]

I would advise selling it outright first. We bought a Dodge Magnum in November 2008, and it's turned out to be the biggest piece of junk EVER. We are continually pouring more and more money into it each month. We have been actively car shopping this past month and it's really difficult to trade it in. We are currently about $6k negative equity for trade-in value, and even if we get a normal 2010 Corolla, they still need over $2k down and our payments will be almost $500/month.

So....if you can sell it outright, that's definitely what I'd do.